Hot Topics:

High-end apartments, retail planned for old Safeway site in Louisville

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
06/01/2011 10:39:05 PM MDT

Updated:
06/01/2011 10:41:58 PM MDT

Mike Mulhern, of Denver architecture and planning company the Mulhern Group, describes a retail and high-end apartment development plan for the old Safeway site at a meeting in Louisville on Wednesday night.
(
MARTY CAIVANO
)

LOUISVILLE -- An attentive, yet wary, group of neighbors gathered in the shell of the old Safeway on South Boulder Road on Wednesday night to take a first look at plans to bring the vacant grocery store site back to life.

Loftus Development, which signed a contract in April to buy the 5.1-acre site at 707 E. South Boulder Road, showed plans and renderings for a high-end, 195-unit apartment complex.

The residential units, all rentals, would be spread across three brick structures ranging in height from three to four stories. The largest residential building would completely wrap around and conceal a 300-vehicle parking structure.

The $30 million development, which would be designed by the Mulhern Group of Denver, would also feature 10,000 square feet of retail space split between two buildings.

Reaction to the proposal among the 100 or so people at Wednesday's community meeting ranged from plaudits for the project's elegant design and pedestrian-friendly layout to concerns about its density and size and its impact on the character of adjacent neighborhoods.

"It almost feels claustrophobic," said Jennifer Gamblin, who has lived about two blocks north of Village Square Shopping Center for five years. "The high density reminds me of Washington, D.C."

She said she wished another grocery store had taken Safeway's place, or perhaps a "family-friendly" entertainment option, like a cinema or a bowling alley.

Advertisement

"If I lived in a big city, this would be beautiful," she said. "But I don't -- I live in a small town."

But Brent Wilson, a 23-year resident of Sunnyside Circle near the proposed project, said he was just glad to see something being planned for what has become an eyesore and blighted corner of Louisville. The Safeway closed in May 2010.

He said Loftus' plan is a progressive alternative to the traditional single-family-house model of suburban living.

"Of all the things that could have happened, this is so good," Wilson said. "A certain density in living can be very good for a community."

Loftus, and members of his architectural team, were asked by several residents if the number of units or the proposed heights of the buildings could be scaled back.

"Then we wouldn't be able to do it," said Loftus, noting that the project's higher-quality construction and interiors that include elevators, wood floors and granite countertops require a certain density.

He said numerous grocers, including Whole Foods, had been approached about occupying the Village Square site and that no deal could be struck.

"The reason we chose this product, and a high-end product, is because that is where the people are," Loftus said. "The market for (top-level) apartments is pretty dynamic right now and will be for the next four years."

Traffic engineer Bill Fox, of Fox Higgins Transportation Group, said a preliminary study showed that vehicle trips a day would drop from 5,600 when the Safeway was operating to 2,200 under the proposed project.

"The traffic that the site will generate is approximately 40 percent of what was here before," he said.

But several residents pointed out that the Safeway hasn't been a vibrant grocery store for years and that children who walk and bike along Centennial Drive to Louisville Middle School would be heavily affected by traffic generated by the new residential units.

Loftus has a couple of months to do its final analysis before closing on the site with Safeway. It would then submit a formal application to city planners. The project would require Louisville to change the zoning from retail to residential.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story